Greetings Commanders,
I've only recently visited the Thetis for the first time ever just a couple days ago and I have got to thinking about some conclusions that I'm going to paste here. I hope it all makes sense and that you enjoy my LARP, such that it is. Some information has already been mentioned in this here thread but hopefully I've expanded on some of it and added something extra. Only the critics can tell
Apologies in advance for formatting...
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Dating The Logs
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The last transmission log stamp is curiously distorted, either by deliberate means or by natural degradation occurring over time.
The 'Final Log' entry number "000.0.00" is interesting as it suggests the number has either become corrupted, was incorrectly entered, or intentionally made to be incorrect in an effort, by persons unknown, to prevent further investigations into the matter. Without this proper final sequence of numbers, we may never calculate and truly know where the 'Final Log' was made before the vessel had entered the Nefertem system.
It's also noteworthy that whilst the first three log numbers follow a numerical increase, the final two entries do not:
- Comms Log 905.2.34
- Comms Log 907.6.34
- Comms Log 908.7.34
- Comms Log 900.0.04
- (Comms Log) 000.0.00
The last number for the first four logs remains consistent, "4", but for the fourth and fifth logs the numbering goes into a decrement rather than the expected increment. This isn't explainable without any solid evidence but rather a hypothesis. The individual making the entries may have inadvertently demonstrated their succumbing to the psychosis-inducing subliminal audio message and their faculties for proper procedure would have, indeed, started to fail.
Being unsure of the exact numbering system, I have come to my own conclusions as to how each log entry was catalogued:
- The first three digits are a serial number for each individual entry, regardless of date, and increment by one for each new entry made. This would allow for several entries to be made for one singular date.
- The second digit set is quite possible the day of the year and would increment all the way to 365 (or 366 if a 'leap year'). Without additional records this remains speculative.
- The third set of digits could be the year and could be abbreviated down to the double digits which was a common practice in those days.
So, a log serial number of "905.2.34" would be; Log Number 905, Day 2, Year '34. Given the fact, from information derived from 'Log 1', that they had their first ninth-gen birth, mere days prior to their total demise, it's likely that the full year would be either 2334 or 2434. If either one of these assumptions are correct this would then place the launch of the Thetis between 2109 or 2164, assuming a typical average of 25 to 30 years between each generation.
Calculations are as follows:
9 Generations x 25 Years = 225 years
9 Generations x 30 Years = 270 years
2334 - 225 Years = 2109 (12 years after the first Generation Ship launched, feasible).
2334 - 270 Years = 2064 (33 years before the first Generation Ship launched (2097), unfeasible).
2434 - 225 Years = 2209 (9 years after the discontinued production of Generation Ships, unfeasible).
2434 - 270 Years = 2164 (Approximately at the time Hyperdrives were invented, still feasible, may have been the last Generation Ship to be built and launched).
Given the nature of Human reproduction, it's highly likely that the average numbers of years between each generation fluctuated between 25 and 30 years. Some generations may have occurred at 22, 26, 27, and so forth. The calculations above do indeed place the launch date of the Thetis between 2109 and 2164. These calculations help to solidify the final two sets of digits contained on the first three properly titled logs.
If the first three logs are to be deemed accurate in their record keeping, before psychosis had set in, then the time of initial accounting of the 'Unknown Transmission' (905.2.34) to a full-scale murderous "epidemic" breaking out throughout the ship was only four days (907.6.34)! This would also mean that the 'Unknown Transmission' was finally decrypted five days after initial 'infection' (908.7.34).
The last two entries, speaking specifically date-wise, will remain a mystery as those entry dates are either corrupted, improperly entered, or intentionally altered. By estimation it may have taken no more than two weeks before the vessel became completely void of all life and with the possibility that it may have been as little as seven days.
There is one additional mystery pertaining to the log titles:
Comms Log 905.2.34 (Log One)
Comms Log 907.6.34 (Log Two)
There's a gap between 905 and 907. 906 is missing.
Log entry '906' would most likely contain an incredibly useful eye-witness account pertaining to the initial outbreak of the psychotic violence that sought to wreak havoc throughout the ship. Whilst '907' briefly details a full "epidemic", the initial cases and measures taken to isolate them may have been included in the missing log. We may never find this crucial piece of the Thetis's final days of life, but we should endeavour to ensure that it does not go unthought of and to keep an eye open for its possible existence.
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Final Log Analysis
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The 'Final Log' contains a broken Log Entry Title and a disturbing audio/data file.
Firstly, analysis of the broken Log Entry Title.
Standard Log Example (First Log):
Comms Log 905.2.34
Final Log Actual:
C_mm_ Lo_ 000.0.00 ….k.l……h.m……..l………………
It's safe to assume that the 'Final Log' should have read, at the very least, "Comms Log [NUMBER]".
The end section of the 'Final Log' title has the lettering "….k.l……h.m……..l………………". Going with the statement made in previous log entry, 908.7.34, regarding the content of the 'Unknown Transmission', "Kill Them All", the lettering appears to fit this phrase; k(i)l(l) (t)h(e)m (a)l(l).
Adjusting the broken title entry for the 'Final Log' it should read as such:
C(o)mm(s) Lo(g) 000.0.00 ... k(i)l(l) (t)h(e)m (a)l(l)
Comms Log 000.0.00 ... kill them all ...
The missing letters in order are: O S G I L T E A L
Thinking this series of nine letters may be an anagram of some sort I attempted to re-sort them, but the best I can come up with are eight letter words which are: Galliots, Tillages, and Tollages. Since no nine letter words can be formed from the provided letters, I abandoned this specific pursuit.
Curiously, for each of the words in the phrase "Kill Them All" >two< letters are missing from each word and are: I L T E A L
Smiling to myself and thinking this may yet be a further chance to discover some form of anagram, I explored this possibility for fun.
Subsequently, I have found only >two< words that use all characters which are: Taille and Telial
- Taille - A tax formerly levied by a French king or seigneur on his subjects or on lands held of him.
- Telial - Designating or of the final stage in the life cycle of the rust fungi (Rusts are plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi).
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The Hypothesis
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The two aforementioned words may be of significance. Please bear with me.
Although the madness that occurred aboard the Thetis was not organically "Telial" in nature, rather electro-audial, it did 'infect' the internal communications system before spreading throughout the entire ship and causing those unfortunate to hear the ‘Unknown Transmission’ to become homicidal lunatics! All within the slow-rusting confines of the deep space vessel.
The other word, "Taille", could imply that this was a tax. A BLOOD tax! Someone or something invoked a taxation against the crew of the Thetis and they utilised some form of electro-audial subliminal messaging to invoke the apparent state of murderous psychosis to make good on whatever debt-of-tax the perpetrator felt was owed...
This leaves the three missing letters from the 'Final Log' title: C(o)mm(s) Lo(g) - O + S + G
There's no word that exists using any ordering of those letters. But if we remove one letter, as potentially indicated by the missing double letters for each of the words "Kill Them All", we find only >two< possibilities. "So" and "Go".
Combining all four words, divisible by >two<, from the 'Final Log' title we can get either:
So + Go + Kill + Them + All (So go and kill them all)
or
So + Go + Telial + Taille (So go spread like fungus (infect) and (collect) tax)
I have learned one thing in life; a singular coincidence is simply that but anything more bears deeper scrutiny. As preposterous as the above hypotheses may seem, there's more than one coincidence here. The Generation vessel, Thetis, was exposed to a data transmission, of still unknown origin, that was documented to have the wording "Kill Them All" buried within as an audible sound. A subliminal "whisper". The transmission was clearly designed to infect and spread like a fungus (Telial) throughout the ship's intercom systems. This infection, as per the retrieved data logs from aboard the Thetis, caused a homicidal psychosis in all those exposed to the audial stimuli and blood was spilled for no meaningful purpose. The lives of the crew were essentially taxed (Taille).
Despite the previous hypotheses, I have yet to come to any other solid or provable conclusion.
My Co-Pilot, Salem, tells me I'm going to drive myself to my own madness if I keep digging into this centuries old mystery. She may be right! As she says, I could be convincing myself that there's far more here than what I'm actually seeing. That I'm creating evidence to fit the reality!
But still, the coincidences are too numerous to simply ignore.
I really should stop looking into this, at least for a while. I've barely slept since my curiosity was first piqued.
- Commander cyNickalCyn
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Addendum 1
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“Comms Log 905.2.34 (Log One)
Still all quiet out here in the black. Just had our very first ninth-gen child born on ship.”
Thetis – A Goddess of Ancient Greek Mythology.
Thetis bore seven children, all of whom perished either when she attempted to render them immortal by fire or when she destroyed them as the tokens of an unwilling alliance.
Did someone believe that the Generation Ship, Thetis, owed a debt in blood? Purely for mythological reasons? The Comms log (908.7.34) did mention that the audio had to be translated. Was it from Ancient Greek, perhaps? Did someone believe that they had the right to tax (Taille) the lives of everyone on board?
For an ancient story?
The possibility that it may have taken as little as seven days for the ship to be completely void of all life?
Just as the Grecian Goddess, Thetis, had seven children?
- Comms Log 905.2.34 (Day 0)
- Comms Log 907.6.34 (Day 4)
- Comms Log 908.7.34 (Day 5)
- Comms Log 900.0.04 (Day 6)
- Comms Log 000.0.00 (Day 7)
The timing, again... coincidence, of the 'Unknown Transmission' beginning to infect its way through the ship, at the same time the first ninth-gen child is born, is something else I simply cannot ignore. The fact that, as stated in log 908.7.34, the transmission was received 15 Lightyears previously meant that the timing of the first known report of the "Whispers" coinciding with the first born of the ninth-generation meant that the "Telial" subliminal audio program may have sat dormant for a considerable amount of time.
But how did the "Telial" program know when to activate at this particular, child-birthing, event? Is it possible that the perpetrator had access to the ships computers? Or was it simply automated? A coded self-fulfilling prophecy? Watching. Waiting.
But why wait until the ninth generation? Why is this number so significant?
I believe this ties in with the aforementioned repeating occurrences of >two<:
- Two letters missing from each of the words "Kill Them All"
- Two words derived from the missing letters in the phrase "Kill Them All"
- Two words derived from the missing letters of "Comms Log"
- The Grecian Goddess lost the lives of seven children
- Nine generations aboard the Generation Ship Thetis
- Two more generations of children than the Grecian Goddess Thetis was said to have.
Six bullet points listed above. Divisible by >two<.
Far too many coincidences to ignore.
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Addendum 2
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My mind won't stop thinking about this. I have to stop thinking about this.
In my sleeplessness last night, I came up with one more hypothesis.
An explanation for the, so far, unknown location for the 'Unknown Transmission'.
I fear it may never be fully confirmed.
If the crew of the Generation Ship Thetis departed at the earliest estimated departure date, 2109, succumbing to its demise in 2334, this creates the possibility that a vessel, of Sol origin, being fully capable of catching up with them, overtaking them on their projected course, and landing on a planet close enough to broadcast the deadly signal. After all, the Hyperdrive technology was created sometime around 2150. This would mean that the technology would be further refined and put into commercial use for almost 200 years before the Thetis would first come to experience the 'Unknown Transmission'. Once the transmission was confirmed to have been received by the Thetis, the 'Unknown Pilot' would have to do nothing more than simply end the transmission, lift off from the planet, and return to Sol.
Nobody would know. Unless the 'Unknown Pilot' chose to make this a one way journey. To sacrifice their life, and those aboard the Generation Ship, so that they may take payment from an Ancient Grecian Goddess? Perhaps the husk of their ship remains seated on whichever planet they broadcasted their terrible self-fulfilling prophecy? Only detectable by low orbital or ground-based surveys?
The likeliest candidate for the location could be AN Sextantis. Even though it's 15.8LY from Nefertem, the likelihood of the individual that was making the logs, mentioning the distance to the 'Unknown Location' in Log 908.7.34 as 15LY, may not have been entirely accurate in recalling the exact number and may have forgone rounding up the number to 16LY.
It is a strong possibility.
After all; Sextantis.
Latin.
I must stop. I must. Stop.
[INARA Log:
https://inara.cz/cmdr-logbook/330243/57802/]
